This is a photo I took with my compact camera on a visit to Ryton Gardens.  I liked the sunshine-yellow of the flowers and think they are as important as the hoverfly.  The hoverfly is sharp as is the flower on which it is sitting.  I also like the fact that it is sitting on a group of three in the foreground, with the flowers repeated in the background.  The settings that the camera chose were ISO80, 1/320 secs at f/4.0 at 6mm.

What do I like about this apart from the fact that there is an insect in the shot?  I love the orange and the green – they work well together, and again, give a feel of Summer.

However, most of all I love the clarity of the wings, and the fact that, up close, the abdomen of the hoverfly appears to be shiny – something I didn’t expect.

Is there anything I would change  – two things – the top of the frame – less noise would be nice, and the exposure of the hoverfly – it was pretty dark down there and I left the judgement to the camera – next time I will try a few shots on different settings.

Handheld macro lens, ISO200, 1/125secs at f/9.

In this picture I was aiming to get the composition right, which is not always possible when nature is involved (for some it is, but I don’t believe in putting insects in fridges or cutting them from one picture to put in another).

The composition of this could be improved if the hoverfly had decided to sit on the left hand side flower, other than that I think that the focus is in the right place, and the bokeh works well.  In addition, the hoverfly (apart from the wing furthest from the camera) is pretty sharp in close up, and the colours are quite soft and muted.

The photo was taken at ISO200, 1/160secs at f/5.0 (the sun had gone in at this point, hence the wide aperture, and the muted colours) – I had the camera set to shutter priority.

I am thinking of entering this into the club’s natural history competition, but I am torn, the shot also looks quite good when cropped in on the hoverfly.  I have included the cropped version below – what do you think?

Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly ovipositing

One of my favourite competitions at the camera club is, unsurprisingly, the Natural History Competition, even though I never expect to win.  This year, we could enter three pictures, in any combination of projected or printed.  The main rule is that the pictures are ‘straight’, cropping and adjustment of exposure, levels etc are allowed, but taking things out or adding things in is not.  It also has to be a picture taken in the wild, e.g. no garden flowers.

This hoverfly is one of those I entered as a projected image.  It is a photo I took last year and is one with which I am pretty pleased, I hoped to do well.  I had even discovered the latin name thanks to John Showers, someone I met through the Northamptonshire bird club, who also runs Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust hoverfly identification courses – my picture will now feature in one of these courses (a fact of which I am very proud)!

The judge on the night apparently takes a lot of pictures of wildlife for competitions and has been judging for a few years.  He was also a very poor judge.  I was not too unhappy with the points awarded, and do not doubt his ability to judge a picture (well, not too much), but, his knowledge of Natural History appeared to me to be woefully inadequate.  Whilst I am not claiming that you need the knowledge of Chris Packham to judge a local camera club competition, I do expect the judge to know the difference between a hoverfly and a wasp (especially when the title of the piece was ‘hoverfly’) and to know the difference between baby blackbirds and starlings (with the latin name in the title). Although, apparently, the judge professed to making up latin names if they were needed for any of the competitions he entered.

He also stated that some pictures would have gained more marks if they had been photoshopped – perhaps he should have read the rules before starting the judging.  Is there any way of complaining about a judge?

For those interested in the photo, it is of a Heliophilus Pendulus hoverfly, taken in my garden, handheld using my 100mm macro lens, ISO 400 (remarkably clear for this setting), f/8, 1/200secs.

Hoverfly on a Cape Daisy

I make no apologies for adding another insect shot in to the library. This is as much about the reminder of Summer that it brings as it is about the shot. It is also a homage to my macro lens. The level of detail that I have managed to get from this lens has amazed me, but it has also started an interest in the world of invertebrates.  You can see the pollen on the insects legs and around its face, even without zooming in.

I also like the colours of the picture, the centre of the flower complimenting the colours of the insect and colour of the flower reminding me of the last days of Summer.

From a compositional point of view, I have cropped the photo and the hoverfly is sitting on a third and the central focus is sharp.

Picture was taken at ISO 200, f/10, 1/320 secs, hand-held.

Hoverfly on Calendula

The thing that I liked about this shot was the colours, the bright orange of the calendula gives the picture a really warm feel, and then the colour of the hoverfly matches. If I zoom in to 1:1 the entire hoverfly, wingtip to wingtip, front to back, is sharp.

As usual, I used my macro lens at ISO 200, f/14, 1/250secs. The brightness of the flower allowed me to stop the lens down to give me that extra depth of field compared to some of my other shots.